I'm in a hurry to get things done
Oh I rush and rush until life's no fun
All I really gotta do is live and die
But I'm in a hurry and don't know why (Alabama)
How true this song rings for so many of us. We are all in a hurry and we don’t know why. Where are we going? Why must we be in a hurry to get “nowhere” so fast? How impatient life can seem today when everyone wants everything fast. We have fast food restaurants, fast bank drive-ins, ATM’s, fast lanes, one hour prescriptions glasses, express lanes in the grocery stores, fast check-ins and fast checkouts at hotels and fast registrations for just about everything you can name.
Amazon has instituted one-click shopping which has raised the bar even higher for fast service transactions. As we speed life up more and more, we become more and more impatient with waiting or even an instant of “wasted” time. We take our frustrations out in road rage or an excess of pills to pacify our anxiety and tensions. We see more and more the negative effects of rushing and multi-tasking. We have forgotten the old admonition that “haste makes waste.” We have no time to spend worrying about whether or not we are rushing since we are so busy rushing we have no time to think. The cycle gets more vicious each day.
When do you have time to stop or do nothing or even to waste a minute? As you go through your activities today, see if you can be a little more patient. See if you can slow down a bit. Use those opportunities when you are frustrated or rushed to regard the flow in your life. Each moment of haste or impatience is an opportunity to slow the rush down. How many chances can you take today to slow the rush down? How many will you succeed at? One of these chances may just save your life?
Recently I started to work as a lanscaper at a Ranch. I am digging out hundreds of shovels of old rock into a wheel barrel and then dumping it in the weeds. If I rush I have to stop and rest after each dump. If I take my time and pace myself I get way more done and I also dont get heat stroke. However, I do have to hurry because I have to finish the project before the snow flies. So what about that type of rush? If I dont get this done before the seasons change I may not get hired on for next year and their yard will look like crap untill next year. It may even wreck their yard/drainage over the winter.
ReplyDeleteI do agree driving faster is rediculous as it only saves you a few minutes at best. But I think hurring up is important in certain situations. Distinguishing which ones they are is the difficult part.
True Joseph, I think life is always a series of tradeoffs or balancing acts. My point is that we are leaning to much towards rushing and not going anywhere. We need to get back to a better balance. Of course, some of us may be too laid back already and also not going anywhere. :)
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